What are the Spike VGAs – and why should you care?

Despite being an event almost nobody outside America ever sees the Spike Video Game Awards mark one of the most important days in the video games calendar.

Ostensibly a live award show broadcast on U.S. television channel Spike TV, the actual awards side of things is completely irrelevant. In fact the whole show is usually embarrassingly amateurish, despite the presence of a number of celebs – including long-serving host Samuel L. Jackson.

And yet… somehow the show has turned into the most important single day for new game reveals in the whole year. Traditionally more games are announced or seen for the first time at the Spike VGAs that any other time, including at E3.

But while E3 affords a chance to see or play the games in person the almost sole purpose of the Spike VGAs is to premiere new trailers. Last year saw the curtain raised on everything from The Last Of Us and Command & Conquer: Generals 2 to Rainbow 6: Patriots and Metal Gear Rising, and this year we already have a few hints as to what will be there.

Already confirmed for the show are new trailers for BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Gears Of War: Judgment, The Last Of Us, South Park: The Stick Of Truth, and Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow 2.

But there have also been repeated rumours of next generation revelations, with promises of games that will be released ‘far beyond summer of 2013’. Concrete news about the Xbox 720 or PlayStation 4 hardware isn’t entirely out of the question, but they may be a little too much to hope.

There have been plenty of rumours about what the other secret reveals are likely to be though, with Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment hinting that will have something to debut (download Alan Wake’s American Nightmare premiered at last year’s show),

Cliff ‘CliffyB’ Bleszinski has already confirmed he’ll be at the VGAs, although in what capacity is unclear. After leaving Epic Games earlier in the year it’s still unknown what he’s up to now, but it seems almost certain we’ll find out this weekend.

Proper details and a trailer for Bungie’s Destiny also seems a shoe-in, with the Halo creators hinting that a big announcement was just around the corner after artwork from the game was leaked last week.

Finally, a lot of high profile downloadable content will also be shown for the first time, including Assassin’s Creed III’s alternative history expansion The Tyranny Of King Washington. News on expanding Halo 4’s Spartan Ops mode is also expected, as well as the latest Mass Effect 3 downloadable content.

What there are no hints on at all is whether Nintendo is planning to reveal anything new. They’ve previously claimed they have unannounced games due to be released before the end of March, so this would be an ideal moment to break their silence them. And yet the VGAs don’t really seem like their sort of thing.

Normally the VGAs cannot be watched outside the U.S. for licensing reasons, but apparently they will be available both online and via Xbox Live in the UK. Although considering they don’t start till 2am in the morning that doesn’t really help much.

Here’s the link to the official website, but don’t say we didn’t warn you about how awful the show is. It’s largely irrelevant though, because by the time you wake up all the individual videos will be on YouTube anyway.

So instead we advise you just have a nice lay in and we’ll report back on all the big news throughout the day.